Nightmare
by RoadkillHermes
Summary: Story about the song with the same name by Avenged Sevenfold. House goes to sleep after a bad day.


_I don't own the song or House! Please don't sue. Something I came up with while listening to the song. Please leave a review!_ _Everything in bold is lyrics._**  
**

I lay in my bed trying hard to toss of the demons of the day and fall into the blissful darkness that is sleep.

It had been a horrible day. We'd lost our patient and on top of that I don't even know why the patient died.

I feel the first drags of sleep start to pull at me and I allow myself to shed the bonds that tie me here.

**NIGHTMARE!  
Now your nightmare comes to life**.

I'm sitting in one of those crappy hospital chairs. There's a bed with a patient in front of me.

I can't make out their face because it's turned away from me. I look at the foot of the bed and notice a chart.

I stand and walk to the end of the bed. My limp is gone but the pain remains as if to remind me that this is just a dream.

I pick up the chart and read the name on it; WILSON, JAMES.

**Dragged you down below  
Down to the devils show  
To be his guest forever  
Peace of mind is less than never**

His face slowly turns toward me. It's bloated and distorted, just like the patient that had died.

I drop the chart and take a step back. "You didn't save me." The Wilson thing says. What's going on? Why don't I just wake up and end this? But it keeps going.

**Hate to twist your mind  
But God ain't on your side  
An old acquaintance severed  
Burn the world your last endeavor**

Now Wilson climbs out of bed and starts coming toward me. "It's all your fault. You didn't save me. You failed."

My mind is racing. This isn't real I remind myself, it can't be.

Wilson is safely at home in his bed dreaming dreams that good, honest people dream.

But no matter how much I keep telling myself this, my mind refuses to register it.

**Flesh is burning  
You can smell it in the air  
Cause men like you have such an easy soul to steal (steal)**

"You could have saved me." He says, still advancing. "You had the answer all along but you just kept overlooking it. I'm dead because for once the answer was simple, but you killed me because you wanted a puzzle to solve."

I back up further and run into something hard.

**So stand in line while banging numbers in your head  
You're now a slave until the end of time**

I turn to see that what I've run into is a person.

It hits me that they are all here. All the ones I failed, the ones who death had claimed.

I look at them all, and they all stare at me with contempt.

**Nothing stops the madness turning, haunting, yearning pull the trigger  
**

I turn to run, to end this nightmare but they have me surrounded.

Everywhere I turn death's eyes stare back at me.

All the times I'd tried to cheat her and lost stand before me letting me know how much I have failed. But worst of all, Wilson stands in their ranks his eyes accusing me just the same, and that more than anything drives it home.

**You should have known  
The price of evil  
And it hurts to know that you belong here  
Yeah  
Oooooooh  
It's your fucking nightmare  
While your nightmare comes to life**

All the years I spent swallowing pills and fixing people.

All the times I never met the patient or their family.

The years of loneliness and bitter anger that I've lived, I see it all, and I'm powerless to change any of it. What are we but the sum of our past?

**Can't wake up in sweat  
Cause it ain't over yet  
Still dancing with your demons  
Victim of your own creation**

"What's the matter House? Remembering all the times you failed? It's amazing isn't it? You thought that you had an amazing track record. But you forget that your score is kept with bodies not points. We are not just some number you write off and forget. We will follow you all your life."

The voice seems to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It's Wilson's voice still mocking me, reminding me that I've killed him.

**Beyond the will to fight  
Where all that's wrong is right  
Where hate don't need a reason  
Loathing self-assassination**

I can't fight this. My own mind has turned against me.

It's trapped me in this prison that is my own personal hell. I don't know what to do. I'm powerless to stop the madness that surrounds me, and yet I feel I some how deserve this.

**You've been lied to  
Just to rape you of your sight  
And now they have the nerve to tell you how to feel (feel)**

Wilson's voice returns to my tortured ears. "What's the matter Greg? Can't live with the truth? Maybe you should join our ranks. We've saved a spot just for you. Your final failure, the taking of your own life."

**So sedated as they medicate your brain  
And while you slowly go insane they tell ya  
"Given with the best intentions, help you with your complications"  
**

This isn't real. I'm going insane. All the stress and hardships that I've been through would have cracked any normal person years ago, yet I stayed sane.

Perhaps it was the self-medicating that had saved me. Not only had it dulled the pain but it had also dulled my mind. It had slowed my descent into madness but now it is all coming back.

**You should have known  
The price of evil  
And it hurts to know that you belong here  
Yeah  
No one to call  
Everybody to fear  
Your tragic fate  
Is looking so clear  
Yeah  
Oooooooh  
It's your fucking nightmare  
HA! HA! HA! HA!  
**

The years I spent trying hard to forget here I had come from.

The pain that has become my leg, the anger that has become my life. It's all becoming clear now.

The fog is lifting. I'm trapped in a prison I made for myself.

**Fight (Fight! ). not to fail (fail! )  
Not to fall (fall! )  
Or you'll end up like the others**

But when have I ever been one to give in to self-pity?

Why am I allowing myself to dwell on this?

I know Wilson is alive and I know that people have died but that has never stopped me before.

I'm a fighter to the bitter end. I'll never take the easy road, and I'll never go down without a fight.

**Die (Die! ), die again (die! )  
Drenched in sin (sin! )  
With no respect for another  
OH!**

In my life I have died many times. Both physically and mentally, and now in the mist of death I am just standing here like a lamb to the slaughter.

This is my nightmare and I'll do what I damn well please! I strike out with a fist and hit Wilson in the nose. A strange sense of power comes over me.

The group advances and starts to overwhelm me.

**Down(Down! ), feel the fire(fire! )  
Feel the hate(hate! )  
Your pain is what we desire  
**

They're pushing me towards the floor trying to get me right were they want me.

But I know now how to defeat them.

I ball my fist and slam it hard into my destroyed thigh.

Pain erupts, pure and bright, and everything starts to shimmer. I repeat the action and everything starts to fade.

**Lost (Lost! ), hit the wall (wall! )  
Watch you crawl (crawl! )  
Such a replaceable liar**

My resolve is crumbling almost as fast as my leg is. I can't keep it up.

The pain may blur out the nightmare but it's killing me too. I hit the floor and try my best to crawl away from the fading group.

"I NEVER FAILED!" I bellow.

Shaking the walls and floors of this place. But I know it's a lie, a lie I have to tell myself everyday so that I can look myself in the mirror and not cringe at the sight I see.

**And I know you hear their voices  
Calling from above  
And I know they may seem real  
These signals of love  
But our life's made up of choices  
Some without appeal  
They took for granted your soul  
And it's ours now to steal  
**

The group is back and I can crawl no longer.

So for the final time I ball my fist as tight as I can and slam it into my ruined thigh.

This sends me the floor in agony but the ghosts of my failings finally disappear.

They are instead replaced by voices. Voices of Wilson, and Cuddy and my team, people who care about me calling me to come out of this prison and back to the world.

**As your nightmare comes to life**

A new voice, one I have never heard joins in. "You shall never forget the failures that plague you. I shall make sure of it."

**You should have known  
The price of evil  
And it hurts to know that you belong here  
Yeah  
No one to call  
Everybody to fear  
Your tragic fate  
Is looking so clear  
Yeah  
Oooooooh  
It's your fucking nightmare**

With one final blow to my thigh I'm ripped free of the nightmare that had consumed me. I lay sweating under my covers, reliving every second of the dream.

I remain awake till the sun shines through my window and the birds start their morning songs.

Only then do I allow myself to close to eyes and drift back to the world of dreams, hoping never again to see my nightmare.


End file.
